Wrapping paper

Yesterday, I discovered a great gift and stationery company called Cavallini & Co. I'm really loving anything with birds on at the moment, and they do the most exquisite bird-patterned wrapping paper.




I bought two sheets of wrapping paper; one a pale aqua with bright pink birds and postage marks, and the other with gold birds, birdcages, and nests. I have some plain cardboard cases that I have been considering decorating. This wrapping paper is perfect as I think the cases will look gorgeous covered in it, and it totally matches the colour theme in my office. Now I just need to find some pink and gold ribbon for the edges of the cases.




I absolutely adore their new sticky notes and really want to find the bird eraser.

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Easter basket

I had originally filled my Easter basket with shredded green grass and Easter chocolates. Then, a friend gave me Easter M&M's she'd picked up in the US. I just had to put them out and thought the basket was the best place for them. I placed a ceramic green spot spoon in for easy serving.




I love the fact that in the US the regular candy comes in pastel colours and themes for Easter. For example, the M&M's above are in wonderful pastel colours with little chicks printed on the back.



The Kit-Kats above were also bought in the US at Easter time.

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Easter table setting

On Easter Sunday I was so excited at the thought of decorating my dining table ready for my guests.

I laid out my Easter table runner and six side plates, placing my Easter bird houses on top of the plates. I put my Easter bird tree at the end of the table, next to my white ceramic bunny. I tied a ribbon around the handle of my ceramic basket, filled it with Easter M&M's, and placed a ceramic green spot spoon in for easy serving.

My cupcake stand is in the centre, with the four Easter mushrooms around the edge. There are three love bird candles in pink, green and white at one end, as is my glass bunny. At this end of the table, I put a plate of chocolate nests and my ceramic bunny egg holder filled with Easter chocolates.

When one of my guests arrived and just stared at the table, took a deep breath, and said "it looks sooo pretty!", I knew it was all worth it.

I hope you like my Easter table setting. It's been a really fun project. Now, onto the next one...

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Easter cupcakes tower

Traditional 3 tier cake stand with my chocolate mallow, raspberry, and toffee apple cupcakes.

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Chocolate mallow cupcakes

Chocolate mallow cupcakes (makes 12 muffin size cakes)
125g butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
180g self raising flour
1 tablespoon Green & Blacks cocoa powder
80ml semi-skimmed milk
12 marshmallows
12 pieces of Green & Blacks dark chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 160-180 deg C.
2. Line muffin tray with paper cases.
3. Beat flour, butter, eggs and cocoa powder in a bowl with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour.
4. Place a chunk of chocolate and a marshmallow in each paper case, and then divide the mixture between the paper cases.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
6. Place cakes on a wire rack to cool.

Decorating the cakes

1. Fill piping bag with vanilla butter frosting and pipe in swirls on top of the cakes.
2. Place fondant flowers on top.

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Raspberry cupcakes

Raspberry and almond cupcakes (makes 12 muffin size cakes)
125g butter, softened
2 eggs
150g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
90g dried raspberries
100g ground almonds
150g self raising flour
60ml milk

1. Preheat oven to 160-180 deg C.
2. Line muffin tray with paper cases.
3. Beat flour, butter, milk and eggs in a bowl with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour.
4. Stir in ground almonds and dried raspberries
5. Divide mixture between cases.
6. Bake for between 25-30 minutes.
   
7. Place cakes on wire rack to cool.

Decorating the cakes

1. Using pre-bought vanilla butter frosting, add a few drops of both blue and yellow food colouring to the butter cream and mix until you achieve the required colour.
2. Fill piping bag with butter cream and pipe in swirls on top of the cakes.
3. Place fondant flowers on top.

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Toffee apple cupcakes

I had recently seen cupcakes with shards of toffee on, which got me wondering if I could make nests out of toffee. It took me three attempts, but I got there in the end. I wanted the cupcakes' flavour to match the toffee nests so, being a big fan of toffee apples, I decided to make apple and maple syrup cupcakes with a chocolate butter cream top. Here's how I did it.

Maple apple cupcakes (makes 12 muffin size cakes)
150g (1 cup) self raising flour
60g unsalted butter
2 eggs
110g brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
60ml maple syrup
200g grated apple
453g chocolate butter cream

1. Preheat oven to 160-180 deg C.
2. Line muffin tray with paper cases.
3. Beat flour, butter, sugar, eggs, cinnamon and maple syrup in a bowl with an electric mixer until mixture is a pale colour.
4. Stir in apple and divide the mixture between the paper cases.
5. Place in preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and place cakes on wire rack to cool.
7. When cakes are cool, pipe butter cream icing in a swirl on top. I used chocolate butter cream, but after tasting, my friends and I thought they would taste better with vanilla.

Toffee nests
I made three batches of toffee because on my first attempt I left the toffee too long in the saucepan and it went black. The second batch worked well but I was not quick enough with it so it started to set in the pan. I tried re-heating it, which was a disaster as it turned white and powdery! So, on the third attempt I worked really quickly with the toffee before it started to set in the pan. I guess the saying is true - the third time really is a charm!

220g caster sugar
125ml water
1/4 teaspoon white vinegar

1. Coat the back of the muffin tray in olive oil (it has to be olive oil).
2. Combine sugar, water and vinegar in a heavy based saucepan.
3. Sir over heat till sugar dissolves and bring the mixture to the boil.
4. Boil uncovered without stirring until the liquid goes a golden colour. I used a sugar thermometer and took the mixture off the heat when the thermometer read 'crack'.
5. Wait for bubbles to subside.
6. Using a wooden spoon, drizzle the toffee onto the back of the muffin tray to create nests.
7. Allow toffee to set at room temperature, and then carefully lift the nests from the muffin tray and place on top of cakes.
8. Fill with mini chocolate eggs.

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Fondant flowers

To make fondant flowers you'll need:

• White ready to roll regal ice icing (also called roll-out icing, rolled fondant or pastillage),
• Sifted icing sugar (also called powdered sugar or confectioners' sugar),
• Natural food colouring in the colours you want (I chose red, yellow, and blue)
• eight petal daisy cutter
• circle cutters
• rolling pin
• baking parchment

Recipe:

1. Divide the white ready to roll icing into four smaller pieces.
2. Knead the icing to soften, then gradually add food colouring until you get the desired colour. I used yellow and blue to make green, red and blue to make purple, a little red to make pink, and blue with yellow to make pale mint blue.
3. Lay out some baking parchment on your work surface.
4. Sieve icing sugar onto your work area and rolling pin.
5. Roll the icing out to about 4mm thick and, using a cutter, cut out the petal shapes. For the centre of the flowers cut a circle and then press into a small measuring spoon, like the one pictured, to get a button-like shape.
6. Wet back of flower centre, place on top of petals, and allow to set.

These will last for at least six months if stored in an airtight container, but for best results use immediately.

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Glass bunny

I saw this glass bunny butter dish and had to have it! I filled it with the tiniest Cadbury Mini Eggs.



On the left is a normal sized Mini Egg, and on the right a tiny one.

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Bucket of chocolate nests

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I love everything in my kitchen to colour co-ordinate, so I have several storage buckets in pale blue. I thought the 'EGGS' one would make a great container to put my chocolate Easter nests in to take around to my family.

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Chocolate nests

It's a tradition in my family for my Mum to make chocolate nests every year and hide them in the garden for us to find. I decided to make some of my own this year. Now that my siblings and I are adults I decided to make "grown-up" Easter nests with dark chocolate instead of the usual milk. Here's the recipe I used:

Chocolate Easter nests (makes 24 muffin size nests)
200g 85% cocoa dark chocolate (I used Green & Blacks)
125g cornflakes
250g mini eggs

1. Line muffin tray with paper cases
2. Break up chocolate into small pieces and place in microwave bowl.
3. Melt chocolate in microwave on full power for about 1-2 minutes (the exact amount of time needed will depend on the type of chocolate being used so remove and stir the chocolate every so often to ensure it heats evenly).
4. Once the chocolate is melted, remove from microwave and gradually stir in cornflakes so they are completely covered in chocolate.
5. Spoon mixture into paper cases and make a hole in the center.
6. Fill hole with mini eggs and leave to set.

Eat and enjoy. Yummy!

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Kitchen wish list

Today, I looked for pale blue and pink kitchen utensils to match my existing sets. Here are some of the items I found that I'd love to add to my collection one day. It's nice to dream!



Rolling pin from Sil-Pin.



Set of 12 Miniamo 'Pastels' Silicone cup cake cases.



Triple-tiered cake/fruit stand in pale blue. I already have this in pale pink but would like to combine the two in a display.



Traditional jelly moulds in pastel colours.

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Kitchen baking utensils

I love everything to colour co-ordinate, like my cute kitchen cupboard, so all my baking and kitchen utensils are mainly in pale blue with hints of pale pink.

The tray above was my first purchase from Cath Kidston, over 10 years ago, from her first shop in London’s Holland Park. I fell in love with all things Cath Kidston that day!

On the tray is a lavender bunny cutter and a pink floppy bunny cutter. The small whisk is from Nigella Lawsons Living Kitchen range, which I love as she does lots of kitchen accessories in pale blue. The measuring cups and spoons I picked up in Woolworths in South Africa because I thought they would match my colour theme. The pink spatulas are from Marks & Spencer, but sadly they only stocked them in that colour for one season. The pink and white spot muffin cases and edible shimmer powder I found in a local store.



If you are looking for pink kitchen utensils then you have to check out Pink Princess (all items above).



If it's pale blue you're after try Nigella Living Kitchen range (top row) and CKS (bottom row).

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Luxe loungewear

I received my new Hush Summer '09 catalogue last week and wanted to share just how lovely their stuff is. This year I am definitely buying the beach bag!

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Easter bird houses

As it's coming up to Easter, I thought it would be fun to make myself some Easter-themed decorations. I'd already made some Easter birds and Easter mushrooms, but I also wanted some place settings for the table.

Thinking about the place settings reminded me of some mini wooden bird feeders that I'd bought and decorated for Christmas a few years ago. But that's another story, and one that I'll come back to later in the year.

As birds are synonymous with Easter, I bought another six of the bird feeders thinking they'd be perfect as the place settings. So, here's how I went about decorating them...


The feeders come in a pack of six. I ordered one box as I wanted one for each table setting.




I removed the rope from the top and painted each feeder in a water-based white wood primer. A couple of coats were needed.




I decided to paint the roofs and bases in colours from my Easter sketch book. I took it with me to the DIY store, and found tester pots in the following colours: Woodland Glade, Willow, Ice Pink, and Amethyst (all Focus matt emulsion).

I painted the roof and base of each feeder a different colour, and masking taped the areas I wanted to keep white.




Continuing the bird theme, I found some mini birds nests, which I attached to the centre of each house with PVA glue.




For the tops, I made some new hanging loops using ribbon. I knotted the ends together and PVA glued a bead in place to stop the ribbon slipping through the hole at the top of the feeder. After feeding the ribbon through the hole in the feeder, I glued it in place.




Finally, I filled the nests with mini foil covered chocolate eggs and, Voila!

Now my place settings are ready for Easter. I can't wait to decorate the table this Sunday!

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Easter tree

I finished making fifteen of the Easter felt birds today. Having already gathered twigs in a nearby wood, I arranged them into a cluster and then wrapped silver wire around them to hold them together. To hide the wire, I covered it with a pretty striped ribbon. The 'tree' sits in a white enamel bucket, filled with pebbles to counterbalance the top-heavy tree. Green straw and chocolate foil-covered eggs hide the pebbles to complete the look!

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Easter table runner

I had been looking for a pretty white table runner for a while now, but all the ones I found were out of my budget. Instead, I bought a plain linen one and hand stitched broderie anglaise down each side using embroidery threads. To finish off, I threaded some of my leftover ribbon from the felt birds through the broderie anglaise trim on each side. Now I have a table runner that matches the rest of my Easter decorations!

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Easter door

With Easter just a week away, I hung my Easter egg wreath from John Lewis on our front door today.

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